Mr. Scot

You know back when I was in like fourth or fifth grade, a good friend of mine always had parlay cards. I remember thinking, "Hey, I get to pick football games, cool". Little did I know...

Damn, dude

So you've given up on the whole "Appaloosa Model, Tepper runs everything" schtick and you're going with this now, eh? Okay, but still wrong. Rhule himself has said that he isn't a "run everything" guy. He acknowledged that Fitterer ran the Draft ("masterfully" he said in fact) and free agency. You can pretty easily look up the quotes yourself, or take the even easier route and just rewatch Panthers confidential. It's all there.

Can't remember who, but somebody recently said they found Hurney 2.0 was superior to Hurney 1.0. I just can't see it. Regardless of what you attribute it to, at least Marty Part 1 did have some level of success. Part Deux never even managed a winning season.

Sadly, wrong again. Having full control isn't what makes a GM "traditional". Having a scouting and personnel background is. Fitterer is absolutely a traditional GM. His background is in scouting and talent evaluation, and that's exactly what Rhule wanted because doing both the personnel and the coaching is just too much for one man to handle. What Tepper wanted was a non-traditional GM, i.e. a guy with an analytics background rather than a scouting background. Hence, why he brought in the candidates he did. But in the end, he deferred to Rhule and got a traditional guy instead. As to Rhule being technically "over" Fitterer, that's not new either. Back in the 70s, 80s and even 90s there were plenty of head coaches who sat at the top of the food chain. Heck, the team where Scott Fitterer cut his teeth has been doing it that way since they hired Pete Carroll. And again, no David Tepper doesn't drive or dictate personnel decisions in any way. Rhule has said it, Fitterer said it, Gantt has confirmed it and even Tepper himself has acknowledged that he doesn't have the skill set. So sorry dude but there's no newfangled method to the Panthers structure. They're doing what's been done for decades by teams around the league, and happily with an owner who understands he needs to back off and let the football people do their jobs. Personally, I'm thrilled because the alternative could have been much worse.

Tepper's been a mixed bag. Kept Rivera and Hurney in place too long for sure, but at least they're gone now. Rhule? Haven't really seen anything hugely negative so far. We'll see about this coming season, I suppose.

He's definitely got a weird sort of "hero worship" thing for Tepper, no doubt. And I mean, that's fine. By all means, he can be admired for his accomplishments if one chooses to do so. But acting like he picks the players, sets the scheme or does any of the other stuff that falls to the coaches and front office is just delusional.

I'd agree with that

The Panthers organization is a business, but football is a game / sport. Sports require coaching, scouting and talent evaluation. David Tepper does none of those things, and is in fact not qualified to do them (something he freely admits). That's why, as Matt Rhule stated, "he leaves the football to us", with "us" being Rhule, Fitterer, Morgan and their people. I get that you want it to be true, but it isn't, and all the wishing in the world won't change that. And sorry, but "who does (whomever) report to" isn't a clever comeback. It's basically just an admission that you've got nothing else to come back with.

Not that specifically, but I'm familiar with that sort of thing

Still could down the road. Mind you, those are the kinds of decisions I'd really rather get made before the season starts.

Breer said today that they're not willing to give any sort of "discount" on their asking price, will decline any offer that includes conditional picks and added that they're more than willing to wait it out until they get what they feel is the right offer. So basically, anyone looking for the Texans to budge on this is likely to be disappointed.

And speaking of tight ends, guess who has a job again?

Also today... Rod Smith was the name of the first guy we took in the 95 expansion draft. Pretty sure this isn't him Apparently he's a runningback Seattle picked up undrafted in 2015 who's bounced around to a couple of different teams.

I forgot he was with the Jaguars. (Manhertz, not the other guy)

Receivers sometimes have a preference for where they want the ball thrown to them. Some guys like it high (Muhammad did, for obvious reasons) others prefer out in front, some right in the numbers, etc. I wonder if any of our current guys have preferences like that, or if they've discussed them with Darnold.

Ease up on the Taco Bell.

It's not just you.

One other Panther tidbit from the same link... From Jordan Kendall (@jordankendall54): Who's the favorite to host the combine if it's moved from Indy? Jordan, I think you’re going to see teams that have built palatial (and pricy) training compounds in the mix. The Cowboys are already asking. The Vikings—whose facility is adjacent to a hotel, and has a stadium as part of it—just joined them. I’d imagine the Panthers would want a look after they move their headquarters to South Carolina, and the Jaguars probably will too, once the new facility Urban Meyer asked for is up and running.

Uuuuhhh, yeah. This is a horrible list.

I remember Hurney saying in his mid-draft presser that the first three picks had been need picks and he was going BPA from there on out. Bottom line was no matter how you approached it, it just plain sucked.

From Jared Feinberg (@JRodNFLDraft): What are some things you’ve heard about Sam Darnold during Panthers training camp? Jared, thus far, the Panthers have been installing the offense with Darnold, and Darnold has worked his tail off to get up to speed on Joe Brady’s scheme. Also, as was the case with Jets people, even after he left, everyone in the building has really taken to the new quarterback personally. And the physical ability is there. It’ll be fascinating to see where Darnold can take it from here, because that last part of the equation, combined with the first two, is why he was the third pick in the draft, and his potential has showed up over his first three years, even if only in fits and starts. I had one coach who worked with him say that if you put together a 25-play sizzle reel of Darnold’s from his time as a Jet, it’d match up with anyone’s. The task for Matt Rhule and Brady is to see if they can make who Darnold could be into who he is, so to speak. And the hope is that by creating some more stability around Darnold—more than he ever got in New York—the 24-year-old will achieve the level of consistency it’ll take for him to get there. Link

I spent a lot of time watching him last year. On way too many plays, if somebody wasn't running right at him, he had absolutely no idea what to do. More than once I actually saw him throw up his hands like he was asking "Okay, what do I do now?" It was like the old joke about a karate guy not knowing how to respond if somebody didn't attack him the same way they do it in class. He was clueless. Don't know if it's lack of brain power, lack of work ethic or lack of whatever, but it's lack.

We've had the "try Little at guard" discussion before, and again I just don't see it. After two years, the guy has barely been able to learn one position. I really don't see him learning a second role. Throw in that guard in a WCO type zone blocking system is more cerebral than you might think.

JT Ibe agrees. Said elsewhere that I don't really mind scuffles that much, but I can also appreciate the "no nonsense" approach. And yeah, Rhule's kind of a hardass.